Tobacco Products

THE TOBACCO industry has won a victory in its effort to keep potentially damaging documents out of a rash of personal injury lawsuits blaming cigarette companies for deaths and illnesses of smokers. On Tuesday the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia overturned a lower court's ruling that the tobacco industry must release company documents that a district judge said showed the industry concealed information about the dangers of smoking.

Big Tobacco's push Big Tobacco is back in Florida. The hand of the tobacco industry is clearly evident in a bill that sounds like a good thing - prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. As originally written, House Bill 169 would have done that. However, it has been amended with language that strips control of the sale of tobacco products from the local communities and leaves it up to the Legislature to decide. This pre-empts any local efforts to create stronger regulations that would prevent children from being exposed to tobacco products.

WASHINGTON -- A New Jersey Democrat wants to clear the air in the U.S. Senate by banning the sale of tobacco products at sundry shops in the complex. Frank Lautenberg, who wrote the law banning smoking on commercial airlines, sent a letter Monday to the food-service management office, saying selling tobacco products is inconsistent with the Senate's commitment to protecting the public's health.

TALLAHASSEE - Health groups and local governments say decades of work to keep tobacco products out of the hands of young people could be overturned through a House measure billed as prohibiting the sale of trendy electronic cigarettes to minors. The American Lung Association of Florida, the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, local officials and Students Working Against Tobacco have found themselves fighting the measure (HB 169) that would prevent youths under 18 from buying electronic cigarettes.

I read with interest the letter by Frances Podlecki (Letters,Sept. 1).Like her, I remember doing some pretty crazy things as a teenager, but I never even had heard of drugs.However, why should we focus on drugs when so many more teenagers will die from the effects of tobacco products? Why do we not seem as concerned to see teenagers with cigarettes between their lips or wads of tobacco in their cheeks?Just because smoking is legal and drugs are not shouldnt make tobacco less a concern for all of us.Jean SargeantOviedo

About half of all U.S. college baseball players and a fourth of all U.S. college football players use snuff or chewing tobacco, according to a survey released Sunday. The use of so-called smokeless tobacco products has continued to grow among college athletes and young men in general despite studies linking the products to gum disease and mouth cancer, the report said. The survey by the University of California at San Francisco School of Dentistry covered 16 baseball and football teams at 16 California colleges.

A little fire has resolved a pharmacist's years of feeling like a hypocrite for selling cigarettes in the same store as medicines. Adrian Thomas set fire Thursday to his state cigarette-sales license and used that to torch his entire stock of tobacco products. ''Enough's enough,'' said Thomas, 55, owner of Thomas Drug Store. ''I can't be telling people in the back of the store what to do to improve their health and in the front of the store tearing their health down.'' He and his employees cleared the shelves of $2,000 worth of cigarettes, cigars, pipes and snuff and set it all ablaze in the parking lot. Thomas said he had been uncomfortable for years about selling tobacco, particularly after a customer who bought cigarettes every day died of cancer.

Smoking and tobacco products have a well-deserved image problem. Even many smokers curse the tobacco to which they are slaves and wish they could break free.Tobacco is bad for your health, and that's certainly no secret.Still, anything done to discourage children - or anyone, for that matter - from smoking would seem to be a step in the right direction.A host of rules President Clinton announced Thursday to reduce smoking by minors, however, adds up to little more than political opportunism.

Kids long have been willing to risk punishment from parents or other authorities to take a few drags off a cigarette.That might change soon in this coastal town north of Daytona Beach, where underage smokers may have to contend with the police as well.The Ormond Beach City Commission is scheduled to discuss a proposed ordinance Wednesday that would make it illegal for anyone younger than 18 to possess tobacco products, including everything from cigarettes to chewing tobacco.Offenders could face civil penalties that include fines up to $25, up to 50 hours of community service and mandatory attendance in school anti-tobacco programs.

Flashing a photo ID to prove they're old enough to buy cigarettes or chewing tobacco won't be a hassle for some users.For others, it might pose an inconvenience.For cashiers, it's their job - as of Friday - to card tobacco-buying customers who look younger than 27.''So far, so good,'' said Raymona Eaton, manager of Lil' Champ, a convenience store in Eustis, when asked about a new federal law designed to curb teenage smoking.''But some customers are grumbling and complaining,'' she continued.

No more cigs at CVS At last! Someone has finally stepped up to the plate to do the responsible thing. CVS pharmacy deserves great praise for its initiative to discontinue sales of tobacco products from its stores. It has never made any sense that a product that has long been proved to cause severe health issues and even death is being sold in an establishment that sells medications and other products to improve our health. Yes, it will mean a severe cut to profits, and that is even more to CVS' credit that it took this giant step.

Income inequality? Or is it inequality in effort in school, in getting training or in taking personal responsibility? A safety net for the truly needy, yes, but effort and personal responsibility are what people use to build a future. Obamacare's mandate for health-insurance companies to offer free contraceptives benefits society in two ways: prevention of unwanted pregnancies and prevention of abortion. CVS Pharmacy has decided to stop selling tobacco products. Is this a move to clear shelf space for medical marijuana?

We asked you: Should guns be allowed on college campuses? YES 35% NO 65% Situations can be volatile As a University of Central Florida faculty member, I interact with students regularly. Although the vast majority of students are mature, responsible adults, some do take advantage of the sense of freedom they experience living away from parental control. These students indulge in dangerous behaviors that they attribute to living the college experience. When the stakes increase, their subsequent actions often result in tragic consequences.

This letter is in response to Deb Brown's Aug. 20 misleading Your View ("Don't let Congress gut the FDA's cigar oversight authority) . 1. Senate Bill 1461 focuses only on premium cigars, not cigars sold at convenience stores that come in flavors such as chocolate and strawberry. 2. Youth usage is not rising. A survey by U.S. Department of Health and Human services from 2002 to 2010 shows that usage among ages 12 to 17 declined from 4.8 percent in 2002 to 3.2 percent in 2010.

Gov. Pat Quinn has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the Cancer Treatment Centers of America to not hire any workers who smoke or use other types of tobacco. The legislation, passed by the Illinois House and Senate , would have created a waiver for for-profit companies that treat cancer patients. Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which has nearly 300 employees at its corporate headquarters in Schaumburg and about 1,000 at its Midwestern Regional Medical Center in Zion, is the only operator the rule would affect.

THE FLORIDA Legislature is now revisiting the Indoor Clean Air Act to further restrict the use of tobacco products. While studying this issue, the legislators should take the lead and prohibit discrimination against people who use tobacco products in the privacy of their own homes.Employers have the right to restrict smoking in the workplace. However, they should not have the right to forbid the use of tobacco products outside the workplace. It should be a person's right to use tobacco products without fear of losing his or her job or being turned down for a new job. If we allow employers to restrict your privacy at home, what is next?

KISSIMMEE -- In response to efforts by a local high school group, county commissioners this week passed a measure to keep tobacco products out of the reach of minors. The ordinance requires stores to move tobacco products in self-service retail displays behind counters so children younger than 18 can't reach them easily. Students Working Against Tobacco asked the commission to consider the ordinance last year, said Brandon Nelson, who will be a freshman at Valencia Community College. "I wouldn't want to walk into a gas station one night and witness a small child pick up a pack of cigarettes thinking it's candy cigarettes," he told commissioners Tuesday, urging them to support the measure.

THE Makati Business Club (MBC) welcomes initiative to reform excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products, which would allow the government to optimize its revenue potential and create a strong disincentive for excessive tobacco and alcohol use. In a statement, the MBC said on Wednesday that they support the restructuring of the excise tax system from a multi-tiered structure to a unitary excise tax structure for tobacco and alcohol. This will effectively improve equity across cigarette and alcohol brands, promote market-based pricing in the industry and encourage the entry of legitimate competition.

Orlando leaders want to snuff out smoking in public parks. The City Council passed a resolution Monday that urges smokers not to light up in public parks and other outdoor spots where secondhand smoke could harm children. The measure stops short of banning outdoor smoking because that's something the city doesn't have the authority to do. But it does ask the Florida Legislature to grant cities that power so Orlando officials can pursue an outright ban in the future. "We want the public to realize our children need healthy areas to play in, and we can help with that," said Commissioner Sam Ings, who introduced the resolution.